Kremlin believes that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s congratulatory letter to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Russia’s national day requires no response

Kremlin believes that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's congratulatory letter to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Russia's national day requires no response, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday.

The spokesman noted that difficult diplomatic relations between countries are not always ground to stop sending congratulatory messages.

“This is a protocol and common practice in international relations. Generally, such messages require no response,” Peskov said. “The message did not include any substantial points, unfortunately.”

According to Peskov, Russia wishes for relations with Turkey to get better, but this is impossible at this point.

“Of course, we would like a normalization of our relations and to return to good, mutually beneficial cooperation. But at the same time, President Putin made it quite clear that after what happened [Turkey downing Russian military aircraft], the Russian side considers any normalization of relations impossible without Ankara carrying out the necessary actions,” he stated.